COULD USE JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE INFO. I ATTACHED A COUPLE OF VIDEOS, SINCE I THOUGHT THEY MIGHT "SPICE" YOUR PAGE UP.I ALSO THINK A NICE TITLE, AND JUST A SMALL WRITE-UP BY YOU ABOUT WHAT YOU LEARNED MIGHT BE NICE. YOUR PAGE ISN'T BAD, BUT A LITTLE MORE WORK WILL GIVE YOU FULL CREDIT FOR YOUR PAGE.
GREEK TEMPLES
While researching this topic, I began thinking about all the work that was out into them by such an ancient civilization. It is amazing to think the these people were able to create such impressive architecture blahblahblah. You get the point, right?
Paestum
The 10 Most Beautiful Temples on Earth
TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS
The Temple of Olympian Zeus (Olympeion) was an enormous structure, the largest temple in Greece, exceeding even the Parthenon in size. Work began on this vast edifice in 515 BCE during the reign of the tyrant Peisistratos, who initiated the building work to gain public favor. Although there were several attempts over many years to finish the temple, it was not completed until 132 CE by the Emperor Hadrian. Although begun in the 6th century BC, it was not completed until the reign of the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods it was the largest temple in Greece.
The 104 columns, each 17 meters (56 feet) high, of the temple were made of Pentelic marble. Only 15 of the Corinthian columns remain standing to give a sense of the enormous size of the temple which would have been approximately 96 x 40 meters (315 x 130 feet) in size.
After the construction of the temple of Zeus, the Athenians honored Hadrian by building an arched gateway in the northwest corner of the sanctuary in 131 CE. The arch, also built of Pentelic marble, bears two inscriptions. The one on the side facing the Acropolis (west facade) reads "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus" while the other, on the side facing the sanctuary and the extension of the city by Hadrian, reads "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus".
Temple of Poseidon at Sounion
This temple is located at the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula in Greece.The temple of Poseidon was constructed in approx. 440 B.C., over the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic Period. It is perched above the sea at a height of almost 70 m. The design of the temple is a typical hexastyle i.e. it had a front portico with 6 columns. Only some columns of the Sounion temple stand today, but intact it would have closely resembled the contemporary and well-preserved Temple of Hephaestus beneath the Acropolis, which may have been designed by the same architect.
As with many Greek temples, the Poseidon building was rectangular, with a colonnade on all four sides. The total number of original columns was 36: 18 columns still stand today. The columns are of the Doric Order. They were made of locally-quarried white marble. They were 6.10 m (20 ft) high, with a diameter of 1 m (3.1 ft) at the base and 79cm (31 inches) at the top.
Temple of Zeus at Cyrene
Cyrene owes its birth to a Greek Island named Thera, in ancient times and which today is known as Santorini, located in the Southern Aegean Sea. as a result of the rise in population that took place in the Greek. Cyrene was the most important of the five Greek colonies in present-day Libya. High up from the rest of the city, lies the Temple of Zeus, dating back to the 5th century BC. It was destroyed during a Jewish rebellion in 115 AD, and was restored 5 years later by the Romans on order of Emperor Hadrian. In 365 AD an earthquake reduced the temple to rubble once more and it was not rebuilt until modern times by British and Italian archaeologists. This temple is larger than the Parthenon, a reflection of the wealth and importance of Cyrene in the ancient Greek world.
The name of the city is rooted in one of the many myths about Apollo’s love affairs with young women. In this case, Kyrene was the daughter of a Thesalian King named Hypseus and a water nymph. She was a young virgin huntress who lived in the woods of Mount Pelion and protected her father’s herd from beasts of prey with the aid of a sword, a spear and two hunting dogs that were given to her as a gift by the goddess Artemis. Apollo saw her fighting a lion with only her hands and fell in love: he took Kyrene to North Africa and they got married.
The ruins of Cyrene rest on the edge of an escarpment overlooking the coastal plain. Four theatres have been found. The spring that attracted the original Greek settlers is situated in a triangular area that was filled by monuments during antiquity: shrines, temples, fountains and baths. The north-eastern hill holds the largest building: the Temple of Zeus, the circus and the city’s cathedral, which was built in the late period.
The intramural area of Cyrene is of about 110 hectares, which means that the city had room for 10,000 people. The population that Cyrene had, is just a matter of speculation, but 5,000 people is a likely guess for a city located at the margin of the Greek world.
Erechtheum
The Erechtheum is an ancient Greek temple of Ionic style on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens. The temple as seen today was built between 421 and 407 BC. The name, of popular origin, is derived from a shrine dedicated to the Greek hero Erichthonius. The temple is probably most famous for its distinctive porch supported by six female figures known as the Caryatids.
The Erechtheum housed the famous cult of Athens' city goddess, Athena Polias. Erechtheus and Poseidon were also worshiped in the Erechtheum. The sacred precinct was supposed to house the tomb of Athens' original kings, Cecrops and Erechtheus, Athena's sacred olive, and the well Poseidon produced in his unsuccessful bid for patronage of Athens.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius
Located on a remote mountainside in the Peloponnese, the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae is a well-preserved and unusual Greek temple. It was built somewhere between 450 and 400 BC. The temple is aligned north-south, in contrast to the majority of Greek temples which are aligned east-west. The temple is unusual in that it has examples of all three of the classical orders used in ancient Greek architecture. Doric columns form the peristyle while Ionic columns support the porch and Corinthian columns feature in the interior. The temple of Apollo Epicurius is presently covered in a tent in order to protect the ruins from the elements.
Doric Temple of Segesta
Located in the northwestern part of Sicily, Segesta was one of the major cities of the Elymian people, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily. The population of Segesta was mixed Elymian and Greek, though the Elymians soon Hellenized and took on external characteristics of Greek life. The Doric temple that lies just outside the ancient site is well preserved. It was built in the late 5th century BC and has 6×14 Doric columns. Several things suggest that the temple was never actually finished. The Doric columns have not been fluted as they normally would have been and the temple also seems to have lacked a roof over the main chamber.
A colorful theory is widely accepted which advances a reason for the temple's construction. In 450 BC, Segesta's rival, Selinunte, allied herself with Syracuse, one of the most powerful city-states of Magna Graecia. Segesta sought help outside Sicily, turning to Athens for aid. To the Athenians, Segesta was only a distant city of little importance. Before they would consider an alliance with Segesta they sent a delegation of diplomatic envoys to investigate the city's claims of wealth. In order to deceive the Athenians into thinking their city more prosperous than it actually was, the Segestans built the temple to impress their visitors. Once the envoys departed, convinced of Segesta's wealth, work on the Temple ceased.
Paestum
Paestum is an ancient Greco-Roman city in southern Italy, not far from the beach. The side boasts three well preserved Greek temples. The oldest temple in Paestum is the Temple of Hera, built around 550 BC by Greek colonists. The nearby temple was built about a century later and was also dedicated to Hera, the goddess of marriage and childbirth. Further away stand the Temple of Athena built in about 500 BC.
The main features of the site today are the standing remains of three major temples in Doric style, dating from the first half of the 6th century BC. These were dedicated to Hera and Poseidon, although they have traditionally been identified as a basilica and temples of Neptune and Ceres, owing to 18th-century mis-attribution.
Temple of Hephaestus
The Temple of Hephaestus, also known as the Hephaisteion or earlier as the Theseion, is a well-preserved Greek temple; it remains standing largely as built. It is a Doric peripteral temple, and is located at the north-west side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. From the 7th century until 1834, it served as the Greek Orthodox church of St. George Akamates.
It is located about 500 meters north-west of the famous Acropolis, The Temple of Hephaestus is the best-preserved Greek temple in the world, although it is far less known than its illustrious neighbor. The temple was built in the 5th century BC in a district which contained many foundries and metalwork shops. It was therefore dedicated to Hephaestos, the god of metal working. The Temple of Hephaestus was designed by Ictinus, one of the architects who also worked on the Parthenon.
Valley of the Temples
Located on a ridge outside the city of Agrigento, Sicily lie the remains of seven Greek temples called the Valley of the Temples. The Temple of Concordia, built in the 5th century BC, is the best preserved in the Valley and is one of the largest and best preserved Doric style temples still standing. The Doric columns are 7 meters (22 feet) high including the capitals and have a diameter of 1.3 meters (4.5 feet) at the base. Other temples include the Temple of Juno, used for the celebration of weddings, and the Temple of Heracles, the oldest Temple at the site which today consists of only eight columns.
Parthenon, Acropolis
The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Greece and a visit to Athens is not complete without visiting this temple. The construction of the Parthenon started in in 447 BC, replacing and older temple that was destroyed by the Persians, and completed in 432 BC. The purpose of the Parthenon was to house a massive statue of Athena Parthenos made from ivory, silver and gold. Sometime in the 5th century the statue was looted by one of the Roman Emperors, and taken to Constantinople, where it was later destroyed. During its long life the Parthenon has also served as a fortress, a church, a mosque and as a powder magazine.
The Parthenon. It is the most important and characteristic monument of the ancient Greek civilization and still remains its international symbol. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos (the Virgin), the patron goddess of Athens. Its sculptural decoration was completed in 432 B.C. The construction of the monument was initiated by Perikles, the supervisor of the whole work was Pheidias, the famous Athenian sculptor, while Iktinos (or Ictinus) and Kallikrates (Callicrates) were the architects of the building. The temple is built in the Doric order and almost exclusively of Pentelic marble. It is peripteral, with eight columns on each of the narrow sides and seventeen columns on each of the long ones. The central part of the temple, called the cella, sheltered the famous chryselephantine cult statue of Athena, made by Pheidias.
The rest of sculptural decoration, also by Phidias, were completed by 432 BC. The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon is a unique combination of the Doric metopes and triglyphs on the entablature, and the Ionic frieze on the walls of the cella. The metopes depict the Gigantomachy on the east side, the Amazonomachy on the west, the Centauromachy on the south, and scenes from the Trojan War on the north.
The Parthenon, the Doric temple, the pinnacle of Pericles' building programme, is beyond question the building most closely associated with the city of Athens, a true symbol of ancient Greek culture and its universal values.
GREEK TEMPLES
While researching this topic, I began thinking about all the work that was out into them by such an ancient civilization. It is amazing to think the these people were able to create such impressive architecture blahblahblah. You get the point, right?
Paestum
The 10 Most Beautiful Temples on Earth
TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS
The Temple of Olympian Zeus (Olympeion) was an enormous structure, the largest temple in Greece, exceeding even the Parthenon in size. Work began on this vast edifice in 515 BCE during the reign of the tyrant Peisistratos, who initiated the building work to gain public favor. Although there were several attempts over many years to finish the temple, it was not completed until 132 CE by the Emperor Hadrian. Although begun in the 6th century BC, it was not completed until the reign of the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods it was the largest temple in Greece.
The 104 columns, each 17 meters (56 feet) high, of the temple were made of Pentelic marble. Only 15 of the Corinthian columns remain standing to give a sense of the enormous size of the temple which would have been approximately 96 x 40 meters (315 x 130 feet) in size.
After the construction of the temple of Zeus, the Athenians honored Hadrian by building an arched gateway in the northwest corner of the sanctuary in 131 CE. The arch, also built of Pentelic marble, bears two inscriptions. The one on the side facing the Acropolis (west facade) reads "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus" while the other, on the side facing the sanctuary and the extension of the city by Hadrian, reads "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus".
Temple of Poseidon at Sounion
This temple is located at the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula in Greece.The temple of Poseidon was constructed in approx. 440 B.C., over the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic Period. It is perched above the sea at a height of almost 70 m. The design of the temple is a typical hexastyle i.e. it had a front portico with 6 columns. Only some columns of the Sounion temple stand today, but intact it would have closely resembled the contemporary and well-preserved Temple of Hephaestus beneath the Acropolis, which may have been designed by the same architect.
As with many Greek temples, the Poseidon building was rectangular, with a colonnade on all four sides. The total number of original columns was 36: 18 columns still stand today. The columns are of the Doric Order. They were made of locally-quarried white marble. They were 6.10 m (20 ft) high, with a diameter of 1 m (3.1 ft) at the base and 79cm (31 inches) at the top.
Temple of Zeus at Cyrene
Cyrene owes its birth to a Greek Island named Thera, in ancient times and which today is known as Santorini, located in the Southern Aegean Sea. as a result of the rise in population that took place in the Greek. Cyrene was the most important of the five Greek colonies in present-day Libya. High up from the rest of the city, lies the Temple of Zeus, dating back to the 5th century BC. It was destroyed during a Jewish rebellion in 115 AD, and was restored 5 years later by the Romans on order of Emperor Hadrian. In 365 AD an earthquake reduced the temple to rubble once more and it was not rebuilt until modern times by British and Italian archaeologists. This temple is larger than the Parthenon, a reflection of the wealth and importance of Cyrene in the ancient Greek world.The name of the city is rooted in one of the many myths about Apollo’s love affairs with young women. In this case, Kyrene was the daughter of a Thesalian King named Hypseus and a water nymph. She was a young virgin huntress who lived in the woods of Mount Pelion and protected her father’s herd from beasts of prey with the aid of a sword, a spear and two hunting dogs that were given to her as a gift by the goddess Artemis. Apollo saw her fighting a lion with only her hands and fell in love: he took Kyrene to North Africa and they got married.
The ruins of Cyrene rest on the edge of an escarpment overlooking the coastal plain. Four theatres have been found. The spring that attracted the original Greek settlers is situated in a triangular area that was filled by monuments during antiquity: shrines, temples, fountains and baths. The north-eastern hill holds the largest building: the Temple of Zeus, the circus and the city’s cathedral, which was built in the late period.
The intramural area of Cyrene is of about 110 hectares, which means that the city had room for 10,000 people. The population that Cyrene had, is just a matter of speculation, but 5,000 people is a likely guess for a city located at the margin of the Greek world.
Erechtheum
The Erechtheum is an ancient Greek temple of Ionic style on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens. The temple as seen today was built between 421 and 407 BC. The name, of popular origin, is derived from a shrine dedicated to the Greek hero Erichthonius. The temple is probably most famous for its distinctive porch supported by six female figures known as the Caryatids.
The Erechtheum housed the famous cult of Athens' city goddess, Athena Polias. Erechtheus and Poseidon were also worshiped in the Erechtheum. The sacred precinct was supposed to house the tomb of Athens' original kings, Cecrops and Erechtheus, Athena's sacred olive, and the well Poseidon produced in his unsuccessful bid for patronage of Athens.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius
Located on a remote mountainside in the Peloponnese, the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae is a well-preserved and unusual Greek temple. It was built somewhere between 450 and 400 BC. The temple is aligned north-south, in contrast to the majority of Greek temples which are aligned east-west. The temple is unusual in that it has examples of all three of the classical orders used in ancient Greek architecture. Doric columns form the peristyle while Ionic columns support the porch and Corinthian columns feature in the interior. The temple of Apollo Epicurius is presently covered in a tent in order to protect the ruins from the elements.Doric Temple of Segesta
Located in the northwestern part of Sicily, Segesta was one of the major cities of the Elymian people, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily. The population of Segesta was mixed Elymian and Greek, though the Elymians soon Hellenized and took on external characteristics of Greek life. The Doric temple that lies just outside the ancient site is well preserved. It was built in the late 5th century BC and has 6×14 Doric columns. Several things suggest that the temple was never actually finished. The Doric columns have not been fluted as they normally would have been and the temple also seems to have lacked a roof over the main chamber.A colorful theory is widely accepted which advances a reason for the temple's construction. In 450 BC, Segesta's rival, Selinunte, allied herself with Syracuse, one of the most powerful city-states of Magna Graecia. Segesta sought help outside Sicily, turning to Athens for aid. To the Athenians, Segesta was only a distant city of little importance. Before they would consider an alliance with Segesta they sent a delegation of diplomatic envoys to investigate the city's claims of wealth. In order to deceive the Athenians into thinking their city more prosperous than it actually was, the Segestans built the temple to impress their visitors. Once the envoys departed, convinced of Segesta's wealth, work on the Temple ceased.
Paestum
Paestum is an ancient Greco-Roman city in southern Italy, not far from the beach. The side boasts three well preserved Greek temples. The oldest temple in Paestum is the Temple of Hera, built around 550 BC by Greek colonists. The nearby temple was built about a century later and was also dedicated to Hera, the goddess of marriage and childbirth. Further away stand the Temple of Athena built in about 500 BC.The main features of the site today are the standing remains of three major temples in Doric style, dating from the first half of the 6th century BC. These were dedicated to Hera and Poseidon, although they have traditionally been identified as a basilica and temples of Neptune and Ceres, owing to 18th-century mis-attribution.
Temple of Hephaestus
The Temple of Hephaestus, also known as the Hephaisteion or earlier as the Theseion, is a well-preserved Greek temple; it remains standing largely as built. It is a Doric peripteral temple, and is located at the north-west side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. From the 7th century until 1834, it served as the Greek Orthodox church of St. George Akamates.It is located about 500 meters north-west of the famous Acropolis, The Temple of Hephaestus is the best-preserved Greek temple in the world, although it is far less known than its illustrious neighbor. The temple was built in the 5th century BC in a district which contained many foundries and metalwork shops. It was therefore dedicated to Hephaestos, the god of metal working. The Temple of Hephaestus was designed by Ictinus, one of the architects who also worked on the Parthenon.
Valley of the Temples
Located on a ridge outside the city of Agrigento, Sicily lie the remains of seven Greek temples called the Valley of the Temples. The Temple of Concordia, built in the 5th century BC, is the best preserved in the Valley and is one of the largest and best preserved Doric style temples still standing. The Doric columns are 7 meters (22 feet) high including the capitals and have a diameter of 1.3 meters (4.5 feet) at the base. Other temples include the Temple of Juno, used for the celebration of weddings, and the Temple of Heracles, the oldest Temple at the site which today consists of only eight columns.Parthenon, Acropolis
The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Greece and a visit to Athens is not complete without visiting this temple. The construction of the Parthenon started in in 447 BC, replacing and older temple that was destroyed by the Persians, and completed in 432 BC. The purpose of the Parthenon was to house a massive statue of Athena Parthenos made from ivory, silver and gold. Sometime in the 5th century the statue was looted by one of the Roman Emperors, and taken to Constantinople, where it was later destroyed. During its long life the Parthenon has also served as a fortress, a church, a mosque and as a powder magazine.The Parthenon. It is the most important and characteristic monument of the ancient Greek civilization and still remains its international symbol. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos (the Virgin), the patron goddess of Athens. Its sculptural decoration was completed in 432 B.C. The construction of the monument was initiated by Perikles, the supervisor of the whole work was Pheidias, the famous Athenian sculptor, while Iktinos (or Ictinus) and Kallikrates (Callicrates) were the architects of the building. The temple is built in the Doric order and almost exclusively of Pentelic marble. It is peripteral, with eight columns on each of the narrow sides and seventeen columns on each of the long ones. The central part of the temple, called the cella, sheltered the famous chryselephantine cult statue of Athena, made by Pheidias.
The rest of sculptural decoration, also by Phidias, were completed by 432 BC. The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon is a unique combination of the Doric metopes and triglyphs on the entablature, and the Ionic frieze on the walls of the cella. The metopes depict the Gigantomachy on the east side, the Amazonomachy on the west, the Centauromachy on the south, and scenes from the Trojan War on the north.
The Parthenon, the Doric temple, the pinnacle of Pericles' building programme, is beyond question the building most closely associated with the city of Athens, a true symbol of ancient Greek culture and its universal values.